


Dust & Ashes

by bravest_person_in_Wonderland



Category: Doctor Who & Related Fandoms, Doctor Who (Big Finish Audio), Gallifrey (Big Finish Audio), Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: Cyber Conversion (Doctor Who), Gen, Holding Hands, I suppose i should tag that, Oreste à Jeun et Pylade Ivre | Orestes Fasting and Pylades Drunk, Permets-tu? | Do You Permit It?, Plagiarism, Please Don't Hate Me, Pre-Episode: s12e10 The Timeless Children, since i did directly copy some of this from Victor Hugo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-20
Updated: 2020-10-20
Packaged: 2021-03-09 00:02:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 641
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27124919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bravest_person_in_Wonderland/pseuds/bravest_person_in_Wonderland
Summary: Romana and Leela become Orestes and Pylades, fasting and drunk.
Relationships: Leela & Romana II
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	Dust & Ashes

**Author's Note:**

> I have nothing to say for myself.

The Citadel was a ruin.

Romanadvoratrelundar, former High President of Gallifrey, more recently Coordinator of the CIA, and in the final weeks, leader of civic rebellion on the planet, was cornered. 

The Cyber-Lords, "upgraded" by the Master in an act of manic devastation after he had torn through the protective bubble surrounding Gallifrey, surrounded Romana in an upper room of the Capitol building. Lord High President Rassilon was now only a metal perversion of life; Braxiatel had, on Romana's orders, removed himself and Narvin to the Axis. Where they were now, there was no way to know. 

Leela had refused to go with them. No amount of begging, ordering, or even slowly-leaking tears could make her change her mind. Now the warrior lay unconscious on the floor, across the room from Romana. 

The Cyber-Lords fixed Romana in their empty gazes and raised their weapons toward her. 

"This is the leader," one of them said in a hollow voice. "She is in our hands." 

Romana stood in a corner of the room, a disabled staser still in her hand. Her chin was lifted in the same defiant confidence she had always presented. "Shoot me," she said fiercely, tossing away the useless staser. 

The Cyber-Lords seemed to be waiting, perhaps for orders from their Master. Of course he would want to upgrade her as well. She would rather die, and resolved in this fact, stood her ground and crossed her arms. 

If the Cyber-Lords had truly been alive anymore, they would have noted the incongruence of the lady's beauty. She seemed fresh, even covered in ash and grime after the terrible and fearful events of the recent hours. 

If they had been alive, they would have resolved to kill her respectfully, but as they were empty servants of a sadistic maniac, they simply took aim. The Master had granted Romana a reprieve, it seemed, in allowing her to die nobly instead of becoming one of the Cyber-Lords. 

Leela, having been knocked unconscious by a blow some time earlier, was beginning to rouse. She was splayed out, her legs at an awkward angle behind and to the side of her torso, her head encircled by her arms and her cheek pressed against the cold floor. As she blinked her eyes open, she resented, as anytime she was caught off guard in such a way, the feeling of waking up after one has been struck. 

A few hard blinks and the blurriness had left her eyes, and she pushed herself up, careful not to alert the squadron of Cyber-Lords, just in time to hear Romana's words. In an instant, she was on her feet, still slightly unsteady. She stepped toward the confrontation. 

"I am one of them." 

The Cyber-Lords, or the one controlling them, were taken aback and did nothing as she pushed through them, making her way toward Romana. 

"Long live Gallifrey," she said fiercely, staring into the dead metal eyes of the Cyber-Lords. "Kill us both at once." 

Then, turning to Romana, she looked gently at her friend and after a moment, took another step closer. "Do you permit it?" She asked, her eyes fixed on Romana's. 

Romana took her hand, squeezing it as she gave Leela a smile. The smile was not yet finished when the report sounded. 

The blows of the shots pushed Romana back against the wall, where her knees locked and she appeared still standing, only her head was bowed. 

Leela fell at her feet, as though struck by a thunderbolt. 

After this, the Cyber-Lords took the remaining Time Lords easily, with no further hesitation and little resistance. Some may have been killed, the rest were upgraded. A few more skirmishes occurred before the Gallifreyan people were no more. Then silence. The Citadel was captured. 

On the Master's orders, the Cyber-Lords began to search lower-class residences for any fugitives.

**Author's Note:**

> I've gotten really obsessed with Les Mis lately (blame [LadyofLothal](/users/LadyofLothal/), who along with [dragonwings948](/users/dragonwings948/) beta'ed this fic for me) and was thinking about Leela and the "permets-tu" scene, and then.... this happened. I'm sorry, but you all have to suffer with me. I legitimately nearly cried while writing this and I still have a bit of a hollow feeling in my gut bc of it, so know that it hurts me as much as it hurts y'all. 
> 
> The title is from [this song from Natasha, Pierre, and the Great Comet of 1812](https://open.spotify.com/track/1NrS9uENQyew6UTlGG4wRu?si=SIVjo1gWTkyh1_ibqozPjw) (yes, I'm mixing three whole fandoms into this) simply because I've started associating that song with Grantaire, and because "they say we are asleep until we fall in love" is such a gorgeous sentiment for Romana and Leela. 
> 
> If you want to see how much I really did plagiarise from Vicky, here's the link I used to find the Orestes and Pylades chapter: [[x]](http://www.online-literature.com/victor_hugo/les_miserables/321/)


End file.
